Abstract: An apparatus having a vacuum track, and a vacuum pallet for use therewith. The apparatus comprises a vacuum duct having a single vacuum pump and a plurality of ports which individually open when said vacuum pallet passes thereover. The pallet has a shoe which fits snugly over the port to facilitate evaculation of the pallet, and has small holes in the article-supporting surface through which the vacuum acts to hold an article in place thereon.

Abstract: The present invention provides a process for feeding transparency sheets having a soft coating thereon from a tray of such sheets. The transparency sheets are interleaved with plain paper separator sheets in a tray so that at the front end of the tray, the ends of the plain paper separator sheets extend beyond the ends of the transparency sheets. A sheet feed means positioned adjacent the front end of the tray engages the extended end of the first of the plain paper separator sheets in the tray. At start up, the sheet feed means does not engage the transparency sheets. The sheet feed means moves the engaged plain paper separator sheet from the tray wherein the movement of the engaged plain paper separator sheet moves the adjacent transparency sheet from the tray.

Abstract: A sheet feeder for use with an offset printing device that is capable of feeding sheets that are bound together along a common edge is disclosed herein. The sheet feeder generally comprises a stack holder for holding a stack of bound sheets along their commonly bound edges, an endless conveyor formed from parallel chains that are driven between the top of the bound sheets and the impression cylinder of the offset printing device, a set of driving and pressure rollers connected between the parallel chains of the conveyor and rotating with it, and a suction gripper movable perpendicularly with respect to the sheet stack top for lifting the respective topmost sheet. In operation, the suction gripper lifts a sheet, and then one of the driving and pressure rollers slides under the sheet and carries it to the impression cylinder, whereupon it acts as a pressure roller during the printing process.

Abstract: Stacked fabric parts are separated and fed seriatim by apparatus having an endless conveyor which feeds the stack into position for separating the uppermost part from the stack. A mechanism having a knife edge bar or opposed fabric engaging needles is lowered and engages the part for dragging the part to be separated off of the stack. The second part on the stack is held with the stack by a pressure force by a series of vacuum providing orifices or recesses in a horizontally disposed support surface and/or by retractable fabric piercing needles. The part separating and translating bar is connected to a support plate which may be vibrated in a generally horizontal plane to assist in breaking the frictional connection between the part to be separated and the remaining parts in the stack as they are separated from each other. The separated parts are presented seriatim to a guide surface which guides the part under the conveyance of an air jet stream along a feed path to another work station.

Abstract: A sheet separating device for separating flexible disc-shaped sheet materials forming a stack. The sheet materials such as floppy discs have holes in the center thereof in register with each other to define a single hole in the stack. The sheet separating device of the invention includes an outer member having a chamber therewithin and an inner member provided in the chamber. The outer member has a contact surface in facing relation to the stack. The chamber within the outer member has an opening in the contact surface through which the inner member also faces the stack. The chamber is communicated with a vacuum source. The opening and the inner member have diameters larger than the holes in the discs. When the vacuum source operates, the inner edge of the floppy discs is drawn up by suction force from a gap defined by the outer member and inner member until the drawn edge of the floppy disc is blocked by the inner member. As a result, the disc is sucked to the device and separated from the stack.

Abstract: A board for feeding a single sheet of paper including holes for paper-feeding which are to be engaged by the sprocket for a paper-feeder of a printer formed at specified intervals on both sides thereof and a part for gripping the rear end of the single sheet of paper and a part for gripping the front end of the single sheet of paper respectively formed on the surface of the board at a specified distance between them in the paper-feeding direction.

Abstract: A separator for separating adjacent transparencies in a stack of transparencies, where the separator is characterized by enhanced permeability due either to the intrinsic material from which it is made, or due to a plurality of apertures, holes, perforations or the like provided through its surface. In use, the separator adheres to the transparency due to suction created by a vacuum transport mechanism of the reproduction machine such that the transparency and separator move as a unit along a paper path of a reproduction machine.

Abstract: A film package containing a stack of notched films in a light-tight envelope is held vertically in a light-tight loading chamber by a clamp member engaging with the notches of the films. The lower end of the envelope is cut, and the envelope is moved vertically relative to the films until the films are projected from the lower end of the envelope while the films are clamped by the clamp member. The clamp member is then disengaged from the notches of the films, and the films are allowed to move down into a receiving chamber positioned under the loading chamber. Then, a shutter is closed between the receiving chamber and the loading chamber to shield the films in the receiving chamber from light.

Abstract: For lifting the topmost, spread apart, magnetizable individual lamination with a central hole off a lamination stack stored without a mandrel and/or for transporting at least substacks of the lamination stack to a different location, a centering mandrel is provided suspended from a movable lifting device and contains, in a nonmagnetic tubular body closed on both sides, at least one separately switchable spreading electromagnet, the centering mandrel carrying at the upper end, at least one switchable adhesion device arranged outside the tubular body, for grabbing the electromagnetically spread apart topmost individual lamination. The centering mandrel is lowered into the central hole of the lamination stack, and then at least one spreading electromagnet is switched on.For obtaining the topmost individual lamination, the adhesion device is switched off after the spreading electromagnet is switched off, and the individual lamination is taken from the centering mandrel.

Abstract: A handling device and installation for bringing to a second station, in a predetermined and fixed orientation and position, a piece, and in particular a supple piece in sheet form such as a fabric, situated in a first station in an approximative position. The installation includes photoelectric edge detectors for locating the position of the piece at the first station, drive motors for bringing and positioning a carriage opposite so-called gripping zones which are predetermined locations on the piece, and shoes for gripping the piece at the first station at the gripping zone and moving the piece to the second station whereby pieces of fabric are supplied in a predetermined orientation to a sewing station.

Abstract: Apparatus for supplying preselected numbers of superimposed prefabricated cardboard blanks of the type having alternating larger and smaller marginal flaps from an auxiliary magazine into the main magazine of a packing machine has a frame which carries the auxiliary magazine above the main magazine and is provided with several lugs which support the larger flaps of the lowermost blank in the auxiliary magazine. A photoelectronic detector monitors the height of the supply of blanks in the main magazine and transmits a signal when the height of the supply drops below a preselected value. This initiates pivotal movement of a pusher which is adjacent to one side of the pile of blanks in the auxiliary magazine whereby the pusher shifts a number of lowermost blanks relative to the lugs so that the lugs register with and can be bypassed by the shorter flaps of the thus released blanks which descend into the main magazine by gravity.

Abstract: A feeder mechanism specially adapted for use in conjunction with plastic open-ended sleeve type article carriers includes a hopper (8) in which collapsed transversely folded sleeves (S) are stacked, the ends of the sleeves being folded upwardly along a transverse fold line (7) so that a minor shorter end portion (7a) of each sleeve is in outermost relation with respect to the hopper and to a major longer sleeve portion (7b), and a hollow, cylindrical rotatable feeder element (9) having a slot (10) arranged in parallel relation to its axis is disposed so that rotation of the feeder element in one direction causes the upper edge (1a) of the minor part of the sleeve to enter the slot so as to effect withdrawal of the sleeve from the hopper. A feed roll (23) is disposed below the feeder element and is arranged so that a sleeve withdrawn from the hopper is fed between the feed roll and the cylindrical feeder element and on to an endless conveyor (25) which operates in synchronism with the feeder element.

Abstract: Conductor plates are fed to a conductor plate tester from a stack by a reciprocating feeder which removes the lowermost plate only of the stack and propels it forwardly to a transport path. The transport path is inclined downwardly toward said tester, the feeder is also inclined at the same angle, with the stack perpendicular thereto. As a result, the conductor plates are moved along the transport path by the force of gravity.

Abstract: Apparatus for stacking stackable workpieces in a plurality of side-by-side vertical columns. The apparatus includes a stacking head transversely movable on a frame, and a conveyor attached to the head for directing individual workpieces to the head. The head has downwardly extending arms that are peripherally spaced from each other a distance corresponding to the breadth of the workpieces for receiving the workpieces one upon the other, for accumulating the workpieces and for releasing the accumulated workpieces for vertical fall to a horizontal surface located below the arms and head.

Abstract: The device comprises at least one toothed roller supported by a rocking lever, and adapted to contact the outer edges of the side flaps of the blanks. Each toothed roller is mounted on a pin by a conventional free wheel device so as to exert a sliding friction on the outer edges of the flaps only during a downwardly directed movement thereof, thereby bending the flaps in a direction opposite to the one naturally assumed by them due to the composite conformation of the stack of blanks.

Abstract: An apparatus is provided for separating a single outermost label from a stack of labels mounted on a centrally disposed shaft in a magazine. The apparatus utilizes a pair of friction members diametricaly opposed from said shaft and containing respective friction engaging elements which are caused to reciprocally move into a position where the friction engaging elements doggingly engage the outermost label of the stack and move toward one another thereby causing the outermost label to slide and bend outward from the next adjacent label in the stack. Included in the apparatus is an adjustable camming mechanism for varing the points at which the friction engaging elements contact the outermost label of the stack.

Abstract: Apparatus for introducing fabric article parts to an assembling machine which comprises a first slide assembly incorporating a device for entraining the parts along the slide assembly and thence into the machine. The fabric article parts are initially suspended from a second slide assembly and a caliper which are movable along separate, but substantially parallel, paths leading to the intake of the first slide assembly.

Abstract: A sheet of support material in which a non-fibrous image receiving portion has a fibrous portion secured thereto. The fibrous portion cooperates with a sheet feeding apparatus to facilitate the seriatim feeding of successive sheets of support material from a stack thereof.